Minnie Pwerle Indigenous Australian (Alyawarre/Anmatyerre), 1920-2006

In this painting Minnie Pwerle depicts the ceremony of the Bush Melon.

This is a kind of fruit that is common in Utopia. At the performance of the ceremony of the Bush Melon, women sing and dance and are decorated with body paint. During the performing of the dance, the women create long tracks in the sand by the movement of their feet. In her paintings, Minnie depicts these tracks by painting lines in different colours en thickness. Minnie painted several paintings with these patterns, which stand out because of the contrasting use of colour.

Long ago, the paint was made up from earth coloured ochres and resins, charcoal and white ash from the campfire were also used. These days acrylic paint has replaced these natural pigments and the designs have become more colourful, still retaining the same basic shapes.

Please note that all First Nations Art is created from a so called ‘Birds Eye’ view. This means that the paintings can be hung either horizontally as well as vertically.